Ferrari's Leclerc takes surprise Mexico City pole

The Mexican Grand Prix is live on 5 Live and the BBC Sport website

Charles Leclerc led Carlos Sainz to a surprising Ferrari one-two in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo added to the unexpected feel of the grid with a superb fourth place for Alpha Tauri.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were sixth and eight for Mercedes.

Home hero Sergio Perez could manage only fifth in the second Red Bull, 0.160secs behind team-mate Verstappen, while the surprise of qualifying was Lando Norris' McLaren down in 19th place.

The Briton failed to put a single lap together in a messy first session and paid the price, while team-mate Oscar Piastri was seventh in the sister car.

Alfa Romeo drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu completed the top 10.

But the order could change significantly once a series of stewards' investigations are completed because of incidents through the whole session. Verstappen, Hamilton and Russell are among the drivers involved in the inquiries.

Ferrari had looked to be struggling through the practice sessions but an impressive run in the first session of qualifying, when Leclerc lapped within 0.4secs of Verstappen's fastest lap despite using medium tyres while the Red Bull was on the softs hinted at their potential.

Despite that, Leclerc was only sixth fastest in the second part of qualifying, but had saved his best for the final session.

The Ferrari drivers went out after the Red Bulls for the first laps, and first Sainz beat Verstappen's initial time before Leclerc pipped his team-mate.

It was all set up for a dramatic climax, but none of the top three could improve their times on their final run and Leclerc's fourth grand prix pole of the season and his second in a row was in the bag.

Leclerc said: "We did not expect to be on pole. We were struggling in final practice again but for some reason when we put the new tyres on everything came together.

"But I am not even thinking about pole. I am already thinking about the race. We have had enough poles and we need to do better in the races."

He also referenced one of the quirks of Mexico - that the long run from the start to the first corner at more than 800m can often make the cars on the front row vulnerable to being passed with the slipstream.

"First place here... I'm not sure it is the best starting place but I will take pole position," Leclerc said.

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What are all the investigations about?

It could take some time to firm up the grid because of the number of investigations to follow.

Verstappen and Russell have been accused of impeding other cars in the pit lane as they queued up at the end of the first qualifying session.

Hamilton is under investigation for now slowing for yellow flags that were being waved after Fernando Alonso spun his Aston Martin at the end of the first session, along with Williams driver Logan Sargeant.

The American, who starts 20th, is also under threat for overtaking when going past a yellow flag, an offence for which Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda is also being investigated.

And Russell, Norris and Zhou have been accused of going too slowly on out laps.

Alex Albon received a penalty during the session. Having made it through into the final part of qualifying in ninth place, the Williams driver had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, by cutting the inside kerb at Turn Two.

It was in the chaos of Alonso's spin that Norris' hopes were finally ended, although he and the team had only themselves to blame.

First, McLaren sent him and team-mate Piastri out on medium tyres for their first runs, but while Piastri set a time, Norris chose to abort his run without doing so.

On his second run, now on the soft tyres, Norris made a mistake in the esses, having a huge slide at Turn Eight and ruining his lap.

He then got caught in the messy end to the session, when Alonso spun his Aston Martin at Turn Three, bringing out the yellow flag and preventing several drivers from improving.

Alonso made it through to the second session despite his error, but could manage only 13th on the grid.